Booster circuit

ABSTRACT

A booster circuit including a precharge capacitor (C 2 ), a precharge driver circuit (20) having a first bootstrap circuit (C 59 , Q 58 , Q 61 ) and precharging a voltage to the precharge capacitor in a reset mode, and an output driver circuit (19) having a switching circuit (Q 21 ) for cutting off the output of the precharged voltage of the precharged capacitor in the reset mode and a second bootstrap circuit driving the switching circuit in an operation mode. The booster circuit further includes an additional switching circuit (Q 1 ) for outputting a voltage to be superimposed onto the precharge voltage in the operation mode. 
     The booster circuit may be applicable to a dynamic semiconductor memory device, for boosting a voltage of a word line at a high speed and for improving integration.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a booster circuit. More particularly, it relates to a booster circuit in a semiconductor memory device.

2. Description of the Related Arts

When the memory capacity of a dynamic random access memory (D-RAM) is increased, a voltage of a word line must be boosted above a voltage V_(CC) of a power source at a high speed, since memory cells connected to the word line increase, and thus increase a capacitance of the word line connected thereto. In addition, in a stacked-capacitor type RAM, the capacitance of the word line is greatly increased. On the other hand, the boosting of the word line voltage will contribute to an improvement of the resistance against a soft error.

Booster circuits have been applied to DRAM devices having a large number of memory cells, for example 256 Kbits or more. The boosting of the voltage is realized by providing a capacitor having a capacitance which may be several times that of the capacitance of the word line connected thereto. A DRAM of 256 Kbits has 1024 memory cells along one word line, but a DRAM of 1 Mbits has 2048, accordingly, in the 1 Mbits DRAM, the capacitance connected to the word line is increased by as much as twice that of the 256 Kbits DRAM. This means that, for boosting, a large capacitance of the above capacitor is required in the DRAM devices having a large number of memory cells. Acordingly, it would seem that these devices suffer from the disadvantages of a low integration of the DRAM device due to the capacitor used to provide the above capacitance having a large area, thus preventing a high integration, and a low speed response for fully changing the voltage in the capacitor in question.

The defects of the prior arts will be described later in detail with reference to the drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a booster circuit having a small size capacitor for boosting and a low power consumption and high speed operation.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a booster circuit, preferably applicable to a semiconductor memory device, for boosting a voltage of a word line of the device and improving integration of the device.

According to the present invention, there is provided a booster circuit for producing a boosted output signal including: first and second power sources for supplying a power source voltage; a first driver circuit connected between the first and second power sources and including a first bootstrap circuit for receiving first and second signals having exclusive logic levels and producing a first output signal in response to the first and second signals; a precharge capacitor operatively connected to receive the first output signal from the first driver circuit, for producing a second output signal having a voltage level higher than the power source voltage in response to the first output signal, the precharge capacitor being precharged when the second signal is supplied; and a second driver circuit connected between the first and second power sources, receiving the first and second signals, and including a second bootstrap circuit for producing a third output signal in response to the first and second signals, and a first switching circuit having a terminal connected to receive the second output signal from the precharge capacitor, and an output terminal from outputting the boosted output signal having a voltage level higher than the power source voltage, the first switching circuit switching to transfer the second output signal to the output terminal to form the boosted output signal in response to the third output signal. The booster circuit further includes a second switching circuit connected between the first power source and the output terminal and operating in response to the first signal.

The second switching circuit outputs a voltage to the output terminal in response to the first signal in advance of the switching of the first switching circuit.

The booster circuit preferably is applicable to a semiconductor memory device, for boosting a voltage of a word line at a high speed and improving integration.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and features of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a prior art boosting circuit;

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of another prior art boosting circuit;

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of still another prior art boosting circuit;

FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating wave forms in the circuit in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a boosting circuit of an embodiment in accordance with the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating wave forms in the circuit in FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Before describing preferred embodiments of the present invention, a description will be given of the prior arts for reference.

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a prior art word line voltage booster circuit disclosed in "DENSHI GIGYUTSU (Electronics Engineering)" Vol. 23, No. 3, pp 31. The circuit in FIG. 1 consists of a word line signal generation circuit 80, a delay circuit 81, MOS transistors Q₈₂, Q₈₃, and Q₈₄, and capacitors C₈₅ and C₈₆. The precharge capacitor C₈₆ is provided to boost a voltage of the word line WL. When a word line voltage φ_(WL) is raised to V_(CC), the transistor Q₈₂ is turned ON, precharging the capacitor C₈₆ from the word line WL. A load connected to the word line WL is reduced to half. The capacitor C₈₆ is precharged through the transistor Q₈₄. When φ_(D) is raised to V_(CC), the transistor Q₈₃ is turned ON, superimposing the voltage precharged in the capacitor C₈₆ onto the voltage of V_(CC) -V_(TH). V_(TH) represents a threshold voltage of the transistor.

However, in the circuit of FIG. 1, the capacitor C₈₅ having a capacitance less than the capacitor C₈₆ is connected to the word line WL, in addition to capacitors of the memory cells. Accordingly, the reduction of the power consumption in and the speed up of the circuit are still limited.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of another prior art word line voltage booster circuit disclosed in NIKKEI ELECTRONICS, Oct. 24, 1983, PP. 185. The circuit shown in FIG. 2 consists of MOS transistors Q₉₁ and Q₉₂, normal bootstrap buffers 93 and 94, and a precharge capacitor C₉₅. A capacitor C_(L) represents a capacitor of the memory cells as a load.

Since the precharge capacitor C₉₅ is directly connected to the word line WL, a load of the transistor Q₉₁ is increased, and the operating speed of the circuit is slow.

FIG. 3 shows still another prior art word line voltage booster circuit consisting of a first driver circuit 20', a second driver circuit 19', and a precharge capacitor C₁ provided between these circuits 20' and 19'. The driver circuits 19' and 20' receive a clock signal φ and a reset signal RST from a timing circuit 21 which outputs the signals φ and RST in response to a row address select RAS signal. An output OT of the driver circuit 19 is supplied to a word line WL through a row decoder 22.

The driver circuit 19' consists of MOS transistors Q₁₁ to Q₂₂ and a bootstrap capacitor C₁₉. The driver circuit 20' consists of MOS transistors Q₅₁ through Q₆₅, which are interconnected between the voltage sources V_(CC) and V_(SS), and a bootstrap capacitor C₅₉ and a capacitor C₆₆. References N₁ to N₅ and N₂₁ to N₂₇ indicate nodes.

In FIG. 3, the capacitor C₁ for precharging the voltage is provided between the node N₂₆ and a source of the transistor Q₆₄ connected to drains of the transistors Q₁₈ and Q₂₁. The precharge capacitor C₁ is not directly connected to the word line, since it is cut off by the transistor Q₂₁ in a reset mode. Accordingly, the circuit shown in FIG. 3 is beneficial to the problem of the circuit shown in FIG. 2. In addition, a capacitor corresponding to the capacitor C₈₅ in FIG. 1 is not provided in the circuit shown in FIG. 3, and accordingly, the circuit shown in FIG. 3 is beneficial to the problems of the circuit shown in FIG. 1.

However, the circuit shown in FIG. 3 still suffers from disadvantages which will be described later.

The operation of the circuit in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the various voltage wave forms in FIG. 4. At first, the reset signal RST, which is one of the input signals to the circuit 20', remains at the "H" level, and the signal φ, which is another input to the circuit 20', remains at the "L" level. Thus, the transistor Q₅₂ is kept ON, the transistor Q₅₁ is kept OFF, the node N21 is kept "L", the transistor Q₅₄ is kept OFF, and the transistor Q₅₃ is kept ON. Therefore, the nodes N22 and N23 are kept "H", and accordingly, the gate capacitance of the transistor Q₅₆ is charged up and the transistors Q₆₀ and Q₆₂ are kept ON. In addition, the node N24 is kept "L", and therefore the transistors Q₅₈ and Q₆₁ are kept OFF and the nodes N25 and N26 are kept "L". Furthermore, the node N27 is kept at the "HH" level, higher than the normal "H" level, due to the bootstrap effect according to the MOS capacitor C₆₆ and the signal RST so that the transistor Q₆₄ is kept fully ON. Therefore, the MOS capacitor C₁ is charged up at the level of the voltage source V_(CC). Thus, at this stage, the output voltage V_(BS) of the circuit 20' is kept at the V_(CC) level.

Under the above-mentioned condition, when the signal RST falls, the potential VN₂₇ of the node N27 falls to a level lower than the V_(CC) level by the threshold voltage V_(TH) of the transistor Q₆₅, and the MOS capacitor C₆₆ is charged up to this potential (V_(CC) -V_(TH)) so that any charge lost in the capacitor C₆₆ while the bootstrap effect is being carried out is compensated. In addition, the output voltage V_(BS), which has been kept at the V_(CC) level, is disconnected from the voltage source V_(CC) because the transistor Q₆₄ is turned OFF. This falling of the signal RST is effected before the rise of the signal φ. When the signal φ rises after the falling of the signal RST, the transistor Q₅₁ is turned ON, the Q₅₂ is kept OFF, the node N21 is turned to "H", the transistor Q₅₄ is turned ON, the transistor Q₅₃ is kept OFF, the node N22 is turned to "L", the transistors Q.sub. 56, Q₆₀, Q₆₂ are turned OFF, and the transistor Q₅₇ is kept OFF. Therefore, the node N24 receiving the signal φ because the transistor Q₅₆ is turned ON is turned to "H", the transistors Q₅₈ and Q₆₁ are turned ON, and the nodes N25 and N26 are turned to "H". Since the MOS capacitor C₁ is charged up at the voltage source V_(CC) as described above, the output voltage V_(BS) is pushed above the voltage source V_(CC) as shown in FIG. 4 when the mode N26 rises to the level of V_(CC) due to the bootstrap effect of the MOS capacitor C₅₉.

While in the circuit 19', when the signal φ rises, the transistor Q₁₁ is turned ON, the transistor Q₁₂ is turned OFF, the node N1 is turned to "H", the transistor Q₁₄ is turned ON, and the transistor Q₁₃ is kept OFF, and accordingly, the node N2 falls to the "L" level. Thus, the transistors Q₂₀ and Q₂₂ are turned OFF. Further, at the period between the signal φ rise and the node N3 charging, the transistor Q₁₆ is kept ON, the transistor Q₁₇ is kept OFF, and accordingly, the node N4 rises together with the signal φ. Accordingly, the transistors Q₁₈ and Q₂₁ are turned ON and are still more fully turned ON due to the bootstrap effect according to the MOS capacitor C₁₉. Therefore, the levels of the node N5 and the output OT rise rapidly above the voltage source V_(CC) following the output voltage V_(BS) which is pushed up to the "HH" level, as shown in FIG. 4.

The capacitor C₁ is charged up before the rising of the signal φ, and the transistor Q₆₄ in the charging circuit for the capacitor C₁ is turned OFF so that the output V_(BS) is pushed up through the capacitor C₁ by the rising of the node N26 in response to the rising of the signal φ, and the output voltage V_(BS) is increased. Thus, the circuit of FIG. 3 has an advantage in that there is no delay in operation. Further, since the capacitor C₁ is used as a voltage supply to the signal φ and is necessary for charging up the parasitic capacity accompanying the signal line of φ, the capacity of the capacitor C₁ should be relatatively large. Because the capacitor C₁ has been charged up through the transistor Q₆₄ preceding the rising of the signal φ, the large capacity of the capacitor C₁ does not cause a delay in operation. Accordingly, the access time of the memory device can be decreased by speeding up the rising transition of the output OT.

However, in the circuit shown in FIG. 3, a charge accumulated in the capacitor C₁ is all output, and accordingly, if an even higher boosted voltage output to the word line is required in response to the increasing memory capacity, such as a 1 mega bit RAM device, an area forming the capacitor C₁ having a capacitance which may be several times that of a load capacitance must be greatly increased. On the other hand, apparently the area forming the capacitor must be minimized due to the requirements of high integration and high density, etc. That is, the circuit in FIG. 3 encounters a problem of antonymity.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described.

Referring to FIG. 5, a booster circuit includes a first driver circuit 20, a second driver circuit 19, a precharge capacitor C₂, and an additional MOS transistor Q₁.

The first driver circuit 20 consists of MOS transistors Q₅₁ to Q₅₄, Q₅₆ to Q₆₄, Q₆₈ and Q₆₉, and a boostrap capacitor C₅₉. The first driver circuit 20 is similar to the driver circuit 20' in FIG. 3. The transistors Q₆₈ and Q₆₉ are provided instead of the transistor Q₅₅ in FIG. 3, however, the principle of the operation of the driver circuit 20 is similar to that of the driver circuit 20' set forth above. In FIG. 5, the transistor Q₆₅ and the capacitor C₆₆ in FIG. 3 are added, and the reset signal supplied to a gate of the transistor Q₆₄ in FIG. 5 may be regarded as a signal having the same nature as the node N₂₇ in FIG. 3, set forth above.

Similarly, the driver circuit 19 has a same circuit construction as that of the driver circuit 19' in FIG. 3, except that MOS transistors Q₂₅ and Q₂₆ are provided instead of the transistor Q₁₅ in FIG. 3.

The precharge capacitor C₂ is provided in a same way as the capacitor C₁ in FIG. 3, and thus the basic function of the capacitor C₂ is identical to that of the capacitor C₁.

The transistor Q₁ is added between the V_(CC) and an output terminal O_(X) of the output OT. The transistor Q₁ receives the clock signal φ at a gate thereof.

The operation of the circuit in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

When a RAS signal is not supplied to the timing circuit 21, in a reset mode, the timing circuit 21 outputs the reset signal RST having a high level, and the node N₁₀ is then precharged, as set forth above. The duration of the reset mode is normally long enough to fully precharge the voltage in the precharge capacitor C₂.

Upon receipt of the RAS signal, the timing circuit 21 causes a fall in the reset signal RST and a rise in the clock signal φ, the reset signal RST and the clock signal being exclusive even if in a transition state.

By increasing the clock signal φ, a voltage VN₁₀ at the node N₁₀ will be further raised to the voltage V_(CC), and a voltage VN₄ at the node N₄ is raised due to the boostrap effect of the capacitor C₁₉. When the voltage VN₄ reaches a predetermined level sufficient to fully turn ON the transistor Q₂₁, the voltage VN₁₀ at the node N₁₀ is output to the output terminal O_(X). At the same time, the clock signal φ reaches the level V_(CC), and accordingly, the transistor Q₁ is also fully turned ON. Consequently, the voltage V_(OT) at the output terminal O_(X) is superimposed onto the voltage of V_(CC) through the transistor Q₁, to the voltage from the node N₁₀ through the transistor Q₂₁.

The bootstrap circuit consisting of the capacitor C₅₉ and the transistors Q₅₈ and Q₆₁ has a feature of fully discharging the charge stored in the precharge capacitor C₂ to the output terminal O_(X) through the transistor Q₂₁ in an operation mode when the clock signal is enable. The bootstrap circuit including the capacitor C₁₉ and the transistor Q₁₈ has a feature of fully turning ON the transistor Q₂₁ in the operation mode.

In the reset mode, the capacitor C₂ is precharged, however, the capacitor C₂ is cut off from the word line WL by the transistor Q₂₁. The transistor Q₁ is also turned OFF. Accordingly, the output of voltage V_(OT) at the terminal O_(X) is the voltage of V_(SS), which may be zero volt, in the reset mode. While, in the operation mode, the superimposed voltage of the precharged voltage of the precharge capacitor C₂ and the voltage of V_(CC) -V_(TH), which may be 4 volts, i.e., the boosted voltage, may appear at the output terminal O_(X) and be output to the word line WL through the decoder 22.

Apparently, the driver circuit 20 functions as a precharge circuit for the capacitor C₂, and the driver circuit 19 functions as a switching circuit for outputting or cutting the precharged voltage. The additional transistor Q₁ functions as a switching circuit for superimposing the voltage V_(CC) onto the precharge voltage.

When the capacitance of the precharge capacitor C₂ in FIG. 5 is identical to that of the capacitor C₁, apparently, the voltage V_(OT) at the output terminal O_(X) is higher than that of the voltage V_(OT) ', shown by a dotted line in FIG. 6 and corresponding to a curve V_(OT) ' in FIG. 4, by the voltage of V_(CC). In other words, the ciucuit in FIG. 5 may further boost the output voltage V_(OT) higher than that boosted by the circuit in FIG. 3, by providing a single transistor Q₁, when the capacitances of the capacitors C₁ and C₂ are identical. An area forming the transistor Q₁ is a considerably smaller than that of the precharge capacitor. Accordingly, high boosting may be achieved without reducing the integration of the DRAM device.

To the contrary, when the boosting voltage equal to that in FIG. 3 is required, the capacitor C₂ may be greatly reduced compared to the capacitor C₁. This will contribute to the high integration of the DRAM device.

In the above embodiment, the booster circuit was described with reference to the RAM device, for boosting the word line of the device, however, the booster circuit may be also applied to other devices.

Many widely different embodiments of the present invention may be constructed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described in this specification, except as defined in the appended claims. 

We claim:
 1. A booster circuit for producing a boosted output signal comprising:first and second power sources (V_(CC), V_(SS)) for supplying a power source voltage; a first driver circuit (20) connected between first and second power sources (V_(CC), V_(SS)) and including a first bootstrap circuit (C₅₉, Q₅₈, Q₆₁), for receiving first and second signals (φ, RST) having exclusive logic levels and producing a first output signal in response to said first and second signals; a precharge capacitor (C₂) operatively connected to receive said first output signal from said first driver circuit, precharged to produce a second output signal when said second signal is supplied; a second driver circuit (19) connected between said first and second power sources, receiving said first and second signals, and including a second bootstrap circuit (C₁₉ and Q₁₈) for producing a third output signal in response to said first and second signals, and a first switching circuit (Q₂₁) having a terminal connected to receive said second output signal from said precharge capacitor, and an output terminal for outputting said boosted output signal having a voltage level higher than said power source voltage, said first switching circuit switching to transfer said second output signal to said output terminal to form said boosted output signal in response to said third output signal; and a second switching circuit (Q₁) connected between said first power source and said output terminal and operating in response to said first signal (φ), said second switching circuit outputting a voltage to said output terminal in response to said first signal in advance of the switching of said first switching circuit.
 2. A booster circuit according to claim 1, wherein said second switching circuit comprises a transistor (Q₁).
 3. A booster circuit according to claim 2, wherein said first switching circuit comprises a transistor (Q₂₁).
 4. A booster circuit according to claim 3, wherein said third output signal of said second bootstrap circuit has a voltage level high enough to fully turn ON said transistor of said first switching circuit.
 5. A booster circuit according to claim 4, wherein said first output signal of said first bootstrap circuit has a voltage level high enough to fully output said voltage in said precharge capacitor to said output terminal through said transistor in said first switching circuit.
 6. A booster circuit according to claim 5, wherein said voltage of said output terminal has a level approximately the same as the level of said second power source voltage when said second signal is supplied to said second driver circuit.
 7. A booster circuit according to claim 6, wherein said second signal has an enable state longer than that of said first signal.
 8. A dynamic metal insulation semiconductor memory device, according to claim 1, further comprising:a timing circuit (21) generating said first and second signals in response to a memory access signal (RAS); and a word line (WL) operatively connected to said output terminal through a decoder (22), said output at said output terminal being supplied to said word line. 